Jesus Christ and the Life of the Mind: A Review Essay
King Solomon said, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction” (Prov. 1:7). Certainly Solomon extols the virtue of learning. Learning is then a virtue for Christians, too. However, Mark Noll has long lamented evangelicals’ unwillingness to pursue knowledge in his book, The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind, critiquing them for their theological deficiencies and focusing on this grim...
Clouds of Witnesses: A Review
Historian Mark Noll is typically noted for his work in American religious history. In 2011, however, he broke pattern with Clouds of Witnesses, a book about missions. Co-written with Carolyn Nystrom, they survey seventeen, lesser-known missionaries from Africa, India, Korea, and China. In exploring these missionaries, Noll and Nystrom challenge American readers’ conceptions of what missions looks like and how it’s done. Although this...
Book Review: Killing Calvinism
Some books elicit interest due to their subject matter. Others do so because of their literary quality. For me, the title Killing Calvinism (Cruciform Press, 2012) was enough to arrest my attention. As a Baptist pastor with strong convictions about the doctrine of salvation, new books on theological systems frequently pique my interest. Regardless of our spiritual sensibilities about “systems,” we all tend to have them. Written by...
Finding God (ed. John Mulder)
Many believers are moved by hearing other Christians share accounts of their conversion experiences. In fact, one of the hallmarks of evangelical identity has been what historian David Bebbington calls “conversionism.” [1] He’s right—we believe that lives should be transformed through the new birth, otherwise called regeneration. Of course, not all experiences are equal. The conversion experience that most Baptists think of has its...
Existential Reasons for Belief in God (Clifford Williams)
by Jared Martin Existential Needs (chapter 1-3) The thesis of Clifford Williams’ book, Existential Reasons for Belief in God: A Defense of Desires and Emotions for Faith, is that the best way to acquire and maintain faith in God is through reason and need [1]. Faith may be based on either reason or need, but one without the other will ultimately be found lacking. As Williams puts it, “Need without reason is blind, but...
Is God a Moral Monster? (Paul Copan)
Paul Copan, Is God a Moral Monster? Making Sense of the Old Testament God (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2011). 252 pp. $14.99 paperback. review by Kevin Williford Among the challenges facing the church today is the attack on the Christian faith posed by what is commonly called the “New Atheists.” What distinguishes the New Atheists from those in previous generations is their militancy and efforts to popularize atheism. The primary mode of...
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